A new law that demands that the Biden administration be held accountable for its messy withdrawal of U.S. military troops from Afghanistan back in August of 2021 has been introduced by Republican Representative Byron Donalds from Florida.
The bill is dubbed the Big Biden Blunder Act.
In announcing the introduction of his bill on Twitter, Donalds wrote:
“This debacle NEVER should have happened and has only emboldened the worst fantasies of our hegemonic adversaries. We need answers and accountability NOW because Biden’s promise to Build Back Better has resulted in nothing more than a Big Biden Blunder.”
A draft of the bill was provided to Fox News recently. It reported that the act would “direct the Comptroller General of the United States to deliver a report on the economic effects of the withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces from Afghanistan, and for other purposes.”
Donalds specifically wants answers on the huge economic impact that abandoning U.S. military equipment in Afghanistan had on the U.S. domestic economy as a whole. It’s been estimated that anywhere from $7 billion to $80 billion of military equipment was just left abandoned in Afghanistan as part of the messy withdrawal.
The second major part of the bill includes a “request for the president to transmit a statement about the relationship between equipment abandoned in Afghanistan and inflation.”
It’s not just the negative effects on the economy that the botched Afghanistan withdrawal have brought to America. It’s also had a major impact on how the rest of the world now views America as well as its military.
In a statement that Donalds provided to Fox News about the proposal, he said:
“The Biden administration’s disastrous, hasty and poorly executed withdrawal from Afghanistan has left a permanent stain on our nation’s military prestige. Thirteen dead U.S. service members, over $85 billion of military equipment and hundreds of Americans left behind, coupled with the images of desperate individuals falling to their deaths from the wings of American aircraft, will forever haunt and tarnish the Biden administration’s foreign policy agenda.”
Donalds’ introduction of this new bill comes just as the Committee on Oversight and Accountability in the House is starting hearings on the same botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
At the beginning of those hearings, Republican Representative James Comer, who’s serving as the chair of the committee, said:
“President Biden and his administration’s decisions during the Afghanistan withdrawal led to the deaths of 13 service members, left Americans completely stranded, allowed U.S. military equipment to fall into Taliban hands, jeopardized progress made by Afghan women, and destabilized the entire region.
“This administration not only continues to provide excuses for the self-inflicted humanitarian and national security catastrophe, but senior officials are actively obstructing meaningful congressional oversight…I look forward to their testimony as we work to hold this Administration accountable and get Americans’ answers.”
There are multiple co-sponsors that Donalds has secured for his bill, which adds some validity to it. Even if it does pass through the House, though, it’s unlikely to pass through the Senate, where Democrats hold a slight majority.
